7 November 2006
English Short Title Catalogue Now Free
The resource for historians, English language and literature scholars, and all those interested in early printed books, periodicals and ephemera, the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) provides bibliographic records for all known British printed material before 1801, held by the British Library and over 2000 other institutions worldwide.
The file will be made freely available to researchers for the first time at http://estc.bl.uk from Monday 30 October 2006.
The ESTC is unparalleled in its depth and range containing all types of printed material including letterpress books, pamphlets, newspapers, serials, advertisements, slip-songs, election handbills and a variety of other ephemera. The coverage extends to items printed in all languages in the British Isles and beyond, to Colonial America, United States of America (1776-1800), Canada, or territories governed by Britain before 1801. It covers Portuguese printing from India, German printing from North America, Gaelic printing from Scotland, and French printing from both France and the Netherlands. It also includes false ‘Londres' imprints, for material printed surreptitiously in France and the Netherlands. Engraved music, maps and prints are excluded from the catalogue but atlases and texts which are wholly engraved are in the ESTC.
Clive Field, Director of Scholarship and Collections at the British Library said: “The British Library is delighted to have been able to open up the catalogue to a global audience and share the riches of such a comprehensive bibliography which is an essential tool to scholars and antiquarian book dealers and collectors.”
Professor Henry L. Snyder, University of California Riverside said: “With the launch of the ESTC on the British Library web page, making it freely available to the public, the ESTC not only realizes the vision projected for it by its creators but far exceeds it. The ESTC has been made possible by the long term commitment of the institutions housing the editorial centers and by the vital support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a host of foundations in North America. Above all, though, it is the unstinting contribution - financial, material, and personnel - of the participating libraries and of generations of volunteers who daily enrich the file that has made it all possible. To them we owe are thanks.”
The ESTC is an international venture with two editorial offices, one at the British Library and the other based at the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research at the University of California, Riverside (ESTC/NA).
www.bl.uk
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